


A Fitting Revenge

by Beryll (Rynthjan)



Category: 300 (2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 07:17:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1336792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynthjan/pseuds/Beryll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Artemisia needs cheering up, Xerxes knows just the thing</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fitting Revenge

**Author's Note:**

> I really thought I was done with fan fiction, but last night I saw 300 and it was just begging for something so… a very short ficlet to clear my head of the madness…

"I have a gift for you, my beautiful Artemisia." Xerxes says it softly, smiling at his sulking admiral indulgently. "You have given me Greece and I believe I have found a fitting reward."

In the splendour of celebration Xerxes surrounds himself with, she is a black spot, frowning, snarling, marring the perfection of victory. He can't have that. He knows what will make her smile.

At his command a man is dragged in by her own masked guards. Bound, bloodied, dirty - exhausted but still struggling. She takes only one look at him and her apathy falls away like a shrugged off cloak. They force him to his knees at her feet and there is that smile he was hoping for.

"I give you Themistocles." Xerxes announces for everyone to hear.

Her eyes are fixed on the Greeks hate-filled face. "He lives?" she asks, awed.

"Fished from the sea for your pleasure." Xerxes answers with a benevolent chuckle.

She leans forward, grabs his filthy hair in a gauntleted fist and he hisses as she painfully twists his head back. There is helpless rage in his eyes. He has lost everything dear to him, everything he has fought for.

"You could have walked beside me." She whispers to him, lovingly. "Now you will crawl. You will live on your knees."

And there is his fear.

Xerxes leans back in his throne and smiles. 

When they told him they had captured his father's murderer, the urge to tear the man's heart out with his own bare hands was near overwhelming. But he resisted. Artemisia will make Themistocles suffer. And then she will break him. And in the end he will be just another obedient slave.

A fitting revenge.


End file.
